Severed Tendons and Broken Bones (Part 4)

  Li Aoz raised his arm and turned his elbow, seeing a dark flesh-like structure growing along the lower part of his radius, resembling a streamlined pea pod. It pulsated rhythmically with his heartbeat, emitting invisible free energy.

  "It's this thing that's reduced my lifespan to less than five years."

  Li Aoz maintained a good attitude.

  Iy, energy abilities are more about quality than quantity because everyone’s energy is limited, and they ot i extensively in various aspects.

  But the biggest issue with mutations is that they ot be skipped; ohey occur, you must decide to accept them.

  It seems like this is a punishment from the gods for those who try to trol their own fate.

  "Shortened lifespan is acceptable. Once I break through to the Alpha tier, my lifespan be extended signifitly. With the right potions and supplements, I should be able to live up to 80 years."

  It wasn't that he articurly fond of the ability to store and release energy, but the other two drawbacks made him too cautious to gamble.

  "Let's go with this then. I'll check the marketpce ter. I remember there's a 'Gene Repair Kit' that fix mutation effects."

  NPCs have no solution for this and only accept it relutly. With time passing, Li Aoz fot if the "Gene Repair Kit" existed, but he vaguely recalled it being priced around 1988 in the pyer marketpce.

  Although expe's still manageable.

  "I should be able to break through to the Alpha tier soon. Lifespan isn’t a major issue—no, this might actually be an opportunity."

  He remembered a special NP old man who sought out those with limited time left and gave them quests, training them as... apprentices.

  That old man was likely in a nearby settlement of outsiders.

  "That old man sells rare accessory equipment. My attributes are low, and accessory equipment usually has no wear requirements, making it perfee."

  Li Aoz made up his mind. As a seasoarfall Master, there are always solutions.

  "Adversity also be an opportunity. Lifespan issues be easily addressed ter. However, this energy pod..."

  This mutation path seemed to have a specific style. If properly developed, Li Aoz remembered a pyer creating a miracle with the "Mutator" css, fighting three equal-level oppos at once.

  "It was called the Blood Demon flow... I o think it over."

  Li Aoz calmed his breathing and turo look at the chaotic corridor.

  "Hey, little beauty, are you rested?"

  Nomi, holding a wrench, sat atop a pile of four or five corpses. Her face, ed in bandages, was pletely stained with blood, dried brown stains making her look ing. Only her red and bck-filled single eye was visible.

  "Nomi has taken down all these guys. Too bad some of the cowards ran away too quickly for me to catch, hehe..."

  Her dition seemed off, as if she was entirely immersed in the joy of sughter. She slowly licked the blood on her wrist, her pupils trag sharply, staring ily at Li Aoz.

  "Little beauty, why are you still standing there dumbfounded?"

  She swung her legs, her petite body exuding a chilling and creepy aura.

  "Li Aoz."

  Nomi opened her mouth, her shark-like teeth being sharper and longer, her skin taking on a keratinous sheen, her bck eyes with red pupils staring at Li Aoz as she slowly stood up, murmuring:

  "I feel like you're being more and more of a nuisance."

  "Even this trigger reje reas... troublesome."

  Li Aoz sighed:

  "I've had a bit of bad luck today with these low-probability events happening oer another."

  He stepped forward, ready to deal with her when Nomi suddenly froze, blinking her eyes, her light purple pupils filled with fusion.

  "Huh? What's this taste in my mouth... Damn it!"

  She looked down at her blood-covered hands and immediately made a retg motion:

  "Bleh—ugh, why did you make me eat this, Li Aoz?!"

  Li Aoz didn't argue that she ate it herself. He stared at Nomi until she felt creeped out and was about to shout at him before he slowly spoke:

  "Not bad, a bit of potential, but not much."

  "You shut up if you 't speak properly! What do you mean 'a bit of potential but not much'? Coach Taylor said I am a genius in the new geion guerril team."

  Nomi, self-satisfied, patted her ft chest, drawing out the st sylble lohan the Nile River.

  Li Aoz mercilessly kicked her, sending her flying to the ground.

  "Ouch! Are you crazy?! Don't hit me—what are you doing?!"

  "Stop hitting me, I haveen, and you're hitting me!"

  "Hey, you 't hit my face just because it's bandaged—ow! Help, he’s hitting a beauty! Is there no justice—"

  Nomi yelled loudly, but Li Aoz didn’t really beat her up. Most of the blood on her was from others, making her look more tragic than she was.

  After tying her up securely, Li Aed the pathetic-looking Nomi into the office.

  Although Li Aoz had experienced quite a bit, only two minutes had passed. Entering the professor's office, the first thing he saw was Assistant Physi Anna with her back turo him.

  "Assistant Physi Anna, are you alright?"

  Li Aoz walked forward, his peripheral vision catg Anna’s drooping right hand, which should have been holding a scalpel or syringe, now gripping a PG15 handgun.

  This was another product of the Four Nations... Li Aoz narrowed his eyes.

  The retionship between the Abyss Humanitarian Relief anization and the Four Nations, especially with the Frosted Republic, was murky and suspicious.

  From Li Aoz’s experience, any anization ected to the Four Nations often ended up as their subsidiary.

  He approached slowly, remaining cautious while dispying a friendly smile, expining:

  "Thank goodness, you seem unharmed. I just subdued these bandits and the ied from the ZX-101 ward—it took me a lot of effort."

  The power of the state mae and the monopoly on energy are enough to make any group surrender.

  His gaze wahe office cked signs of a struggle but exuded an uling atmosphere. Li Aoz suddenly sensed something out of pce.

  "Assistant Physi Anna?"

  Li Aoz stopped two meters behind her, his eyes cold but his voice filled with and fusion:

  "Assistant Physi Anna, the professor should be with you. Why is she not..."

  "The professor?"

  Assistant Physi Anna's shoulders trembled. Li Aoz noticed a dripping sound. His gaze dropped, seeing blood trig from her wrist.

  "Blood." Nomi whispered to Li Aoz: "The smell of death."

  Li Aoz’s expression remained unged, but his voice turo shod surprise:

  "What happened... where’s the professor?"

  "The professor..."

  Assistant Physi Anna’s voice was dazed, filled with great shod fusion. She said softly:

  "The professor is here."

  She turned around, her face spttered with blood, some white fluid slowly flowing down her neck, soaking into her white coat along with her sins.

  Her bck hair was unusually messy, her eyes filled with shod fear. She looked at her bloody hands and gun, then at Li Aoz with despair and terror in her eyes.

  "You..."

  Her mind seemed on the verge of colpse, perhaps reted to the professor slumped in the chair behind the desk.

  Li Aoz and Nomi’s gazes shifted past Assistant Physi Anna to the professor.

  She looked peaceful, eyes closed, lying quietly in the chair, one hand on her chest, the other as if holding something, a bloodstain blooming on her forehead.

  Dead.

  "Why?"

  Assistant Physi Anna was lost. She held her head, pupils dited, face torted, repeatedly murmuring:

  "Why? Why? hy why why?"

  She suddenly went berserk, sweeping everything off the desk, holding her head. Uo cry due to the intense sadness, she gnced sideways at Li Aoz.

  Then, without warning, she raised the gun to Li Aoz’s head:

  "It's all... your fault!"

  "Why did you e to save us? Why a sed too te? Or a sed too early?"

  "If not for you, the professor could have survived, or I could have died... it's all your fault! All your fault!"

  Her will pletely broke down. Li Aoz watched her, unmoved.

  "Oh." Li Aoz g the gun meism and said: "Then shoot."

  Nomi's eyelid twitched: "Damn it, Li Aoz, are you crazy again—"

  Anna's emotions were pletely untrolble. She stared at Li Aoz, fag a patient, her hand trembling, her heart deeply flicted.

  If she pulled the trigger, she would be taking another person's life.

  But... the professor.

  With little hesitatiohread of reason snapped.

  She gave up thinking, fag Li Aoz, opening her mouth and nearly g out as she pulled the trigger:

  "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

  Click.

  The trigger did not fire, and Assistant Physi Anna froze, then her eyes widened in shock as she saw a shadoroag.

  Bang!

  The moment, Li Aoz's fist struck her face hard.

  g—

  Anna was sent flying onto the desk by the punch, curling up in pain and losing her bance, falling to the floor.

  "If I were you, I'd check if the gun's safety is on, you idiot, moron!"

  Li Aoz said, grabbing her hair, his gray eyes devoid of emotiohlessly pulled her head up, f her to look at the professor's body:

  "Look closely, you fired the gun."

  "You killed her, don't try to deny it or py dumb!"

  "No matter the reason, this is your sin. You, personally, killed the professor you admired."